We hand-rolled it with jQuery and a hook image from iStockPhoto (what can we say, we couldn't avoid the the easy fish pun), but if people are interested we could release it as a jQuery plug-in.
Right now we require Facebook, because we heavily rely on the graph to match groups while requiring minimal work from our members. For instance, we want to make sure the two groups don't already know each other, and we haven't figured out a good way to replicate this functionality without Facebook (e.g. "tell us all the people you know!")
If you have any ideas, though, we'd love to hear them.
Anything requiring the users to confirm they don't know the name of the other party slows the process quite some and removes the laissez-faire element.
We are building a platform for groups of people come together, kind of like grouper does for 3 guys and 3 girls, but a different approach. And psychology is a huge part of it! Making people want to do what you want them to do, or not want to do what you don't want them to do, is an art. But it is also a science, and there should be some sort of knowledge base of psychological tactics, in social apps or otherwise.
Anyone know of anything like that?
Here is what I can tell you without getting in trouble. People take action because of emotional reasons, and justify that decision with logic and "objective" reasons to defend their decision to others.
Every single thing you want your users to do is causing them pain. They do not want to click... Before they do even the simplest thing possible, they will rack their brain for excuses to not do it and avoid the pain you created for them. Your job is to make it MORE PAINFUL NOT TO TAKE ACTION!!!
There are two ways to do this. (you should do both) 1. Make the process as painless as possible. 2. remind them and aggravate the pain that led them to your app in the first place.
Make sure your messaging not only hits on the emotional triggers at play and focuses on the benefits, not the features... (People buy the hole, not the drill) but more importantly gives them the tools to defend their action to their friends and everyone else who they need to defend the decision to. ------------
You should read Napoleon Hill's book "Think and Grow Rich," if you read it carefully, you will see it is literally a bible of understanding human nature and the world, etc...
Here is a slightly relevant excerpt and list from the book, "The 10 Mind Stimuli. The stimuli to which the mind responds most freely are:
1. The Desire For Sex Expression 2. Love 3. A Burning Desire for fame, power, financial gain, money... 4. Music 5. Friendship between either those of the same sex or those of the opposite sex. 6. A Master Mind Alliance based upon the harmony of two or more people who ally themselves for spiritual or temporal advancement. 7. Mutual Suffering, such as that experienced by people who are persecuted. 8. Autosuggestion 9. Fear 10. Narcotics and Alcohol.
I hope this helps... Good Luck!
http://www.amazon.com/Building-Successful-Online-Communities...
Seems like LinkedIn pioneered this, HN also does this to a great degree, but now Grouper is taking it to the next level as it holds you responsible for your online actions offline.
The wheels are turning in my head about ways to leverage people's desire to manage their personal brand into a mutually beneficial situation for all parties involved. Good job Waxman! You might have stumbled upon something profound here.
We're actually soon going to roll out a big, new feature that will take this notion to the next level. We're really excited about it. Stay tuned...
Or do you use another number that temporarily redirects/connects them to the other people anonymously? If so, I'm curious to know how you do that.
So I would change:
we would give you a number for the other group, and YOU WOULD CALL THEM (not us) TO APOLOGIZE.
we would give you a number for the other group which does not reveal their actual phone number, and YOU WOULD CALL THEM (not us) TO APOLOGIZE.
Not sure how you'd do it except perhaps as an exit question for people leaving your community.
If you make it harder to cancel you're relying even more heavily on the integrity or conscience of the cancelling party to notify the other group members of their desire to cancel. 90% seems like a really drastic decrease which is why I bring this up.
This will likely be the topic of a future blog post...
This is a company I would invest in today. These guys know the game and are playing it accordingly.